Spring Song, Liu Yuxi (Tang Shi #281)
Thursday, 8 August 2019 12:03![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerFresh makeup’s good—descend the scarlet tower:
Spring glory’s locked up tight in a yard of sorrow.
Reaching the central courtyard, I count the flowers.
A dragonfly flies up to my jade hairpin.
春词
新妆宜面下朱楼，
深锁春光一院愁。
行到中庭数花朵，
蜻蜓飞上玉搔头。
So much between the lines in this one. The speaker is a woman in a high-status household, either a mistress/young miss or a serving maid (commentaries are divided here). The sorrow is hers, understood from context and convention as from some disappointment in love, and the counting is an attempt at distracting herself. The dragonfly landing implies being still for some time, lost in thought (or maybe wallowing).
---L.
Spring glory’s locked up tight in a yard of sorrow.
Reaching the central courtyard, I count the flowers.
A dragonfly flies up to my jade hairpin.
春词
新妆宜面下朱楼，
深锁春光一院愁。
行到中庭数花朵，
蜻蜓飞上玉搔头。
So much between the lines in this one. The speaker is a woman in a high-status household, either a mistress/young miss or a serving maid (commentaries are divided here). The sorrow is hers, understood from context and convention as from some disappointment in love, and the counting is an attempt at distracting herself. The dragonfly landing implies being still for some time, lost in thought (or maybe wallowing).
---L.